1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to board games, board games where players or teams of players move from a starting position to a final winning position, and games where players advance by answering questions to allow them to progress around the game board. In particular, the invention relates to such board games with special features enabling faster movement on the board based on knowledge-based skills.
2. Background of the Invention
Games involving trivia are well known in the art. Typically, such games require a playing board on which the progress of all players is identified by tokens of varying types. Forward movement along the board is determined by a combination of dice rolls, spinners and correct answers to questions. Selection of the questions is totally at random. Players neither choose nor control the subject matter.
Additionally, these games do not include wagering. Questions are not defined as to difficulty. Only one individual at a time plays as others wait their turn. The winner is merely the player who navigates a series of blocks or hazards to a finish line.
One game in this genre is U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,775 (Banks et al.). In Banks, a player selects a question card. The question card has four questions and answers, each pertaining to four distinct categories. The player also selects a category card. The category card indicates which question should be asked from the question card. If the player answers correctly, another player rolls a pair of dice. The number rolled is added to the player""s score. The winner is the player with the highest score.
Another prior art game is Trivial Pursuit(copyright). Trivial Pursuit(copyright) involves players traveling around a board by rolling a die. Each space is associated with a particular category. For example, in the Silver Screen Edition(copyright), the categories are settings, titles, off-screen, on-screen, production and portrayals. Upon landing on a space, a player is asked a question. If answered correctly, the player rolls again. There is only one headquarters space for each category. If a player lands on a headquarters space and answers a question correctly, the player receives a wedge. When a wedge is obtained for each category, the player must move to the center of the board and answer a question correctly to win.
A prior art trivia game involving money is the home version of the television show Jeopardy(copyright). In Jeopardy(copyright), players pose questions in response to an answer. The answers are divided among several categories. A player selects an answer based on a designated dollar value and the category. The first player to ring in may attempt to pose the correct question. If the player poses the correct question, the player wins the designated amount. If the player answers incorrectly, the player loses the designated amount and other players can ring in (signal) to answer the question. The winner is the player with the most money at the end of the game.
Word games provide amusement and education. Many of such games, for example, that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,594 to Eaton, employ a board wherein players move tokens about a board and answer trivia questions related to the space upon which player tokens land. Another game employing trivia questions is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,815 to Glenn, which game also employs decoding a number to letters that are rearranged by the players into words. Other games, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,161, Elesie, et al., employ a track or pathway on a board and have players draw cards with words and definitions, and wherein players advance by knowing the correct definition of drawn words. In other word games, such as that game shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,089,527, to Roth, a player advances by memorizing items on cards. Word puzzles are involved in the game of U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,668, to Mobrem, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,452 to Marchese requires players to name a series of words which fit within a particular category and start with particular letters. U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,614 to Buda involves guessing particular words by a process of selecting and eliminating letters contained in the word. U.S. Pat. No. 3,606,336 to Krause is directed to a word association game wherein the player builds words from lettered tiles obeying the rule that successive words start from the last letter of the prior word and have a length derived from chance.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,070,874 teaches a question and answer game with associated items is played by a plurality of players. The questions are divided into categories with a predetermined number of questions in each category. Each question has assigned odds. A responding player selects one of the categories. The responding player is advised of the odds of one of the questions within the selected category. Players make wagers based on whether the question will be answered correctly. After the responder answers, players gain or lose based on the question""s odds and whether the responder""s answer is correct.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,899,456 teaches a progressive trivia game for two or more participants having a playing board with a path made of a plurality of symbolic positions, a six sided die, a plurality of question and answer cards and a timer. A player rolls the die to move to a symbolic position. The symbolic position defines a category of trivia. The card provides elements of an answer. The player scores a greater number of points by providing an answer before (a) time runs out and (b) by providing the answer by knowing a lesser number of elements. The object of the game is to be the first to score a predetermined amount of points.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,735,522 describes a quote and year trivia question game including a game board, die, a plurality of game pieces and a plurality of cards. Each of the cards has a front face with a plurality of quotes and questions relating to various subjects printed thereon. On a rear face of each card is the origin and answer of the quote and questions, respectively. The game is played by each player rolling the dice and moving an associated game piece along the game board as governed by whether or not the player guesses the correct origin or answer.
Certain games are known to have an object of moving around a fixed path on a board, with the winner determined by being the first player to travel around the entire board. Within this broad class of games, there are some games that display short-cuts or penalty paths through the fixed path. Games such as xe2x80x9cChutes and Ladders(copyright)xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cCandyland(copyright)xe2x80x9d exemplify this format. In both of these cases, the short-cut is achieved solely by the luck or chance of landing on the space defining access to the short-cut.
Other games have weighted difficulties and chances for larger moves on the playing board based upon the difficulty of questions. U.S. Pat. No. 5,660,389 discloses a history-based trivia game wherein the answers to all questions are given in the form of a calendar year. Game components include a game board, throwing die, game pieces, playing cards and bonus markers. The object of the game is to be the first player to advance a game piece across a calendar year imprinted on the playing board by correctly answering questions found on the playing cards. A player may advance his or her playing piece one day of the calendar year for each point earned by correctly answering a question. Questions of greater difficulty are awarded a greater number of points. A weighted scoring system allows players to earn partial credit as calculated by the total number of points possible for a correct response minus a pre-designated number of points depending on the degree of variation of the player""s response from said correct answer.
The subject matter of games covers an extremely wide range of interests in the format of the game and the subject matter of the questions. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,333 describes a word association game wherein the players derive different but commonly known word sets from elements of a previous commonly known set including a die, a board, a plurality of preprinted cards, a xe2x80x9cminute glassxe2x80x9d timer, a plurality of pads and writing instruments, and game tokens for movement on the board. The board has a path of adjacent spaces, which path is arranged with the start space at the crossing. The spaces are color coded in one of six different colors. The preprinted cards each have a blind side and a face side. The latter has six different color-coded areas with a different word set in each. A word set is a common phrase (e.g. TIE CLASP) or single (e.g. BLACKJACK) which includes a plurality of different word elements (e.g. TIE, CLASP, BLACK, JACK). Each card has different word sets from the other cards with those of one color coding being of a different word sets from the other categories: PEOPLE, PLACES, TITLES, THINGS, GENERAL and SPORTS/GAMES. A player""s turn includes throwing a die and drawing a card at random. The player""s piece is moved the number of spaces on the die to a space whose color-code determines the category and thus the starting word set. The player must in a time period enter successive word sets on the score pad, each entry related to the previous word set by using one of its elements for points and/or movement of tokens. Players alternate turns until one reaches a set goal (e.g. 100 points).
Other areas of topics that have been used as the basis of questions include, for example, basketball (U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,721); stock car racing (U.S. Pat. No. 6,095,522); weight loss (U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,611); Afro-American topics (U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,569), international finance (U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,836); biblical questions (U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,816); politics (U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,970); and the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,371 lists, among many other topics, the use of common abbreviations and acronyms as the basis or topic area for questions in a board advancement game. U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,877 describes a category of initials and abbreviations as one of the topics for questions asked in a board advancement game. U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,996 describes the use of acronyms in creating a sentence.
Although many different types of games are available in the marketplace, consumers and game companies are always interested in playing or providing a new game with unusual features that increase the enjoyment of players.
A board game is described in which players advance around a board seeking to be the first to complete the designated path of travel. Among unique features provided in the play of the game are cards providing questions that need to be answered if the player is to advance, the player having the option of receiving up to three clues or hints in answering the questions. The use of clues diminishes the rewards (the number of spaces advanced) won by the player as he/she plays. Special short cuts across the board or across segments of the boards are provided, with a player having to answer a certain percentage of questions (with or without clues and with the possibility of the percentage being less than 100%) to be able to access a short cut path. Penalties may also provided where a player uses all allotted clues and cannot answer the question, as moving back a space. A preferred topic of use in the play of the game is acronyms, abbreviations, nicknames, and the like. Two dice may be used, where the dice have different sets of numbers on their faces. The two dice may be used together or separately, depending upon how many clues were used, to increase or decrease the number of spaces a player advances upon answering a question and accessing questions of different difficulties.